from the hydrogen gas that came from Reactor 3 when they did the vent of Reactor 3. TEPCO says in the handout for the press on November 10 that the gas, instead of going up the exhaust stack (oh no here we go again, the stack…) into the air, went to Reactor 4’s air duct on the 4th floor.

To prove their case, TEPCO released the photographs on November 10 taken on the 3rd, 4th, and 5th floors of Reactor 4 on November 8. The heaviest damage is on the 4th floor with totally destroyed and disfigured air duct pipes. The rebar of the floor of the 5th floor is lifted upwards, while the floor of the 4th floor is pushed downward. It seems plausible enough that an explosion (there may be more than one, judging by the number of “fires” that Reactor had on March 15 and 16) took place on the 4th floor.

Photographs taken inside Reactor 4 before were rather neat and orderly. But this set of photographs shows the inside to be just as badly destroyed as Reactor 3. Or for that matter, as the top floor of Reactor 1 as seen in the video I posted before.

…

For the complete set of photos, go to TEPCO’s “Photos for Press” page, here.

The sequence of the explosive events in Reactors 3 and 4 is this, then:

TEPCO did the vent of Reactor 3 at 9:20AM on March 13. The hydrogen gas supposed to have flowed into Reactor 4 through the air duct, to the 4th floor.

Reactor 3 blew up at 11:01AM on March 14. The duct connecting Reactor 3 to the exhaust stack (shared by Reactors 3 and 4) was destroyed in the explosion and disconnected from the stack.

After nearly 2 days after the hydrogen gas from Reactor 3, as the result of the vent, had filled the air duct on the 4th floor of Reactor 4, Reactor 4 had a hydrogen explosion at 6:12AM on March 15.

The problems I have are these:

Why did the hydrogen gas from Reactor 3 go to Reactor 4 to begin with, instead of out to the stack and into the atmosphere?

Why didn’t Reactor 4 blow up when Reactor 3 did, if it was filled with hydrogen gas? Instead, it waited another day till it finally blew.

It does look like a hydrogen explosion, as I don’t see any evidence of high temperature. The Spent Fuel Pool of Reactor 4 looks pretty much intact.

… these are not “dosimeters” but “glass badges” that passively collect radiation information. It won’t help these children or their parents to avoid high-radiation areas and spots, it won’t tell them how much radiation they will have been exposed unless they are sent in to a company to interpret the data.

Radiation exposure is increased by a factor of a trillion. Inhaling even the tiniest particle, that’s the danger.

Yo: So making comparisons with X-rays and CT scans has no meaning. Because you can breathe in radioactive material.

Hirose: That’s right. When it enters your body, there’s no telling where it will go. The biggest danger is women, especially pregnant women, and little children. Now they’re talking about iodine and cesium, but that’s only part of it, they’re not using the proper detection instruments. What they call monitoring means only measuring the amount of radiation in the air. Their instruments don’t eat. What they measure has no connection with the amount of radioactive material.

Dr. Helen Caldicott (Co-founder of Physicians for Social Responsibility):

You’ve bought the propaganda from the nuclear industry. They say it’s low-level radiation. That’s absolute rubbish. If you inhale a millionth of a gram of plutonium, the surrounding cells receive a very, very high dose. Most die within that area, because it’s an alpha emitter. The cells on the periphery remain viable. They mutate, and the regulatory genes are damaged. Years later, that person develops cancer. Now, that’s true for radioactive iodine, that goes to the thyroid; cesium-137, that goes to the brain and muscles; strontium-90 goes to bone, causing bone cancer and leukemia. It’s imperative … that you understand internal emitters and radiation, and it’s not low level to the cells that are exposed. Radiobiology is imperative to understand these days.”